Numbers are an interesting thing.  People spend their whole life studying them.  In the film Pi as I recall the protagonist was accused of becoming a numerologist rather than a mathematician.  Grigory Perelman, regarded as one of the world's most accomplished mathematicians, proved the Poincare conjecture a few years back.  The Poincare conjecture was a mathematical conjecture that said something like (and I am certain that I am going to botch this - mathematicians will have a laugh), a three dimensional object shaped like a doughnut can really be drawn with a single line and all the points will connect.

Apparently many advanced mathematicians don't understand the conjecture, much less have the ability to prove it.  The conjecture had been around for over one hundred years and no one could prove or disprove it.  Perelman solved it in a proof reading well over one hundred pages.  He combined fields of mathematics that were viewed as being so disparate and unique in their own, that few mathematicians had a mastery in more than one of them.  It took a team of mathematicians the better part of a year to understand what he was doing and whether or not it was true.  In the end they determined that he had solved it.

Mathematicians stated that this was one of the greatest discoveries in all of mathematics, ever.  It would help to answer questions about the universe and geometry and do just about everything but boil an egg.  Perelman was awarded the Millenium prize.  That was a $1 million purse for his discovery.  He was also awarded a Field's Medal, which is arguably more prestigious than a Nobel Prize (sorry Mister President).  The thing is, he declined them both.  He didn't even show up to the ceremonies.  Apparently, he thinks the entire institutionalized world of mathematics is screwed up.  He had quit his job as a mathematics professor at a Russian University at about that time as well.

He has made comments that the field of mathematics is not ethical anymore, people take credit for things they didn't work on, the teaching of mathematics is poor, and that if he had accepted prizes he would have been made into a pet.  Apparently he looks at the field of mathematics now as being something painful and difficult to discuss.  As well as people know he lives with his mother and enjoys foraging for mushrooms in his free-time.

I'm reminded of a bible verse that has some application here, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" -Matthew 16:26

Now I'm not saying that Mr. Perelman has forfeited his soul.  I am positive that I would not be able to have a conversation with him about what he sees as the most elementary principles of mathematics.  Most upper level mathematicians couldn't.  If he hadn't solved the Poincare conjecture, their is no guarantee that anyone else would have solved it in the next hundred years or possibly ever.  On the other hand, I don't know that the proof has actually done anyone any good.  I don't know if it has planted crops or improved air pollution or reduced childhood obesity or anything of the sort.  All I know, is that from an outsiders perspective, Grigory doesn't appear to have a great life.  Grigory, if you are reading this; feel free to tell me otherwise and I'd love to go foraging with you sometime . . . or at least grab a beer.

So I guess the real moral of the story here is up to the reader.  My thoughts are more or less that time is very valuable.  This isn't to say that any of us given enough time can become award winning mathematicians; I'm not sure that that is true.  However, any of us can accomplish about any one thing or possibly a few that the world would see as impossible.  But we should be careful about what we invest ourselves in.  There are certain intellectual,  physical, spiritual, or emotional interests that may intrigue us and will take up more of our time, but let's not let those pursuits derail everything else we have going for us.  On the other hand, a Field's Medalist (whether he collected the thing or not) is likely much smarter than I and likely has great reasoning for living the life he does.  So, what fields are you going to find yourself sowing in?  What sort of harvest do you want to reap?  It would be cool to see some posts :-)

To the Night,

-C